Each year, an album released by a Canadian artist is awarded the Polaris Music Prize for "artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label". The award is voted on by a jury of over 200 Canadian music media folk (journalists, broadcasters, etc.). Along with the national recognition comes a cash prize of $30,000, which is sponsored by the Government of Canada, and other private organizations. This year saw the award handed to cult post rock act Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

In an interesting turn of events though, the band has released the following statement regarding their win:

"A FEW WORDS REGARDING THIS POLARIS PRIZE THINGhello kanada.hello kanadian music-writers.thanks for the nomination thanks for the prize- it feels nice to be acknowledged by the Troubled Motherland when we so often feel orphaned here. and much respect for all y’all who write about local bands, who blow that horn loudly- because that trumpeting is crucial and necessary and important.

and much respect to the freelancers especially, because freelancing is a hard f**king gig, and almost all of us are freelancers now, right? falling and scrambling and hustling through these difficult times?

so yes, we are grateful, and yes we are humble and we are shy to complain when we’ve been acknowledged thusly- BUT HOLY sh*t AND HOLY COW- we’ve been plowing our field on the margins of weird culture for almost 20 years now, and “this scene is pretty cool but what it really f**king needs is an awards show” is not a thought that’s ever crossed our minds.

3 quick bullet-points that almost anybody could agree on maybe=-holding a gala during a time of austerity and normalized decline is a weird thing to do.-organizing a gala just so musicians can compete against each other for a novelty-sized cheque doesn’t serve the cause of righteous music at all.-asking the toyota motor company to help cover the tab for that gala, during a summer where the melting northern ice caps are live-streaming on the internet, IS f**kING INSANE, and comes across as tone-deaf to the current horrifying malaise.

these are hard times for everybody. and musicians’ blues are pretty low on the list of things in need of urgent correction BUT AND BUT if the point of this prize and party is acknowledging music-labor performed in the name of something other than quick money, well then maybe the next celebration should happen in a cruddier hall, without the corporate banners and culture overlords. and maybe a party thusly is long overdue- it would be truly nice to enjoy that hang, somewhere sometime where the point wasn’t just lazy money patting itself on the back.

give the money to the kids let ‘em put on their own goddamn parties, give the money to the olds and let them try to write opuses in spite of, but let the muchmusic videostars fight it out in the inconsequential middle, without gov’t. culture-money in their pockets.us we’re gonna use the money to try to set up a program so that prisoners in quebec have musical instruments if they need them…

amen and amen.apologies for being such bores,we love you so much / our country is f**ked,xoxoxoxgodspeed you! black emperor"

Leave it to Godspeed to drop a screed at this kind of thing. I kind of appreciate the sentiment, but there's something really annoying about it too. Maybe I just appreciate brevity and think eco-warriors are fundamentally annoying. Also, the quirks in the writing. Ugh.

I kind of appreciate the sentiment, but there's something really annoying about it too. Maybe I just appreciate brevity and think eco-warriors are fundamentally annoying. Also, the quirks in the writing. Ugh.

But oh well.

My sentiments exactly, but I guess we're a minority in feeling this way.

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